34 L TT R FROM LONDON :Iu f:\.,.""",.,, , ....., . ;.... : ".:". i; :;;::;;\;"'" -' '-":' ' i.:;'> .' ".):..-",:. :;;, ;\ ;',#% ... . : b > ' 2' - Rf." WJ -' .J' -"._ '^' ) ./' . "':":';.' rJ ....:: _./-; V/ ..<< ,\./,' '. " '. ..' . ".<t, . A,4A &.. " JOoVV/ c - " " ,: '<..1 V.ð 4CÞ / ..' :': " .s'.y'r , :', ,,-,'/ ,...., ," ". ' ,." .,' .., .. .{I-t! /' . " , " 1 o /.::::::' ' JANUARY 31 (BY CABLE) .:11 S ENTIMENT in London about the Casablanca meeting seemed to be rather subdued. In general, the public acted like the cautious reader who thinks the blurb on the cover of l book promises well but wants to wait and see what's inside. Mayhe there was a slight feeling of disappointment that this time there couldn't have been four leading characters instead of the conventional two. Maybe, too, the repetition of Mr. Churchill's sudden appearances :-', :i:' in unexpected parts of the globe -. has blunted the popular excite- ment which resulted from his first Atlantic rendezvous. At any rate, the average Briton, .::. (_-;:_ '" ,' whose own travelling is Ipostly restricted these days to following his nose to work and back again, appeared to accept the drama tic locale a f the con- ference with as much calm as if it had come off in a board room in Liverpool. E very local discussion of the Casablanca meeting has centred not so much on the journeys which immediately preced- ed it as on the big-scale ones of men and Inaterials which are presumed to have been decided upon at the conference. How to provide the transport neces- sary for these 1 943 excursions is the question which, though it wasn't men- tioned in any of the vague Casablanca comn1 uniqués, is at last engaging the alarmed attention of press and public. Suddenly every Briton seems to have awakened from a comfortable night's slumbers and seen a periscope in his backyard. Past official statements on the U -boat problem, from the Prime Min- ister downward, have tended to lull people into feeling that it was bad, but not so bad that it couldn't be licked. Right now the sombre certainty is that the situation couldn't be worse. Lots of people are saying that this is one of the occasions when ignorance isn't bliss and that it would be less dangerous to relax the official secrecy about our shipping losses, even at the risk of informing the enemy, than to allow the present state of anxiety to continue, since it gives rise to fears that matters are even graver than they were in 1917. Now that the jubila- tion over Allied land successes is moder- ating, people are soberly remembering that the sea is the battlefield on which the outcome of the war really depends. If the impending Parlialnentary U-boat de bate is held in secret, as has been pro- posed, it won't do much to dispel the growing uneasiness of the public, whIch wants more assurance than it has had so far that the next twelvemonth won't see the boys all dressed up and plenty of places to go If only they could get there. "::::::: P OSSIBLY a peek at the figures on the number of ships being sunk would also help cajole people into going slow on the precious wheat loaf. In an effort to avoid rationing it, Lord \V oolton recently called a meeting of delegates from tHe immensely powerful Women's Institutes, who promised to help his cam- paign along and sped back to their village centres to urge some three hundred thou- sand members to push still mor.e potatoes down their families' throats. Strictly vegetarian dishes are shortly to appear, marked with a per- . " V " d suaSIve , on restaurant menus, an at least one London railway station is doing a brisk trade with baked potatoes for a between-trains snack instead of the now unpatriotic sandwich. Even if bread is not to be rationed, the general feeling is that the food situation, which right now is pretty good, soon won't be so good. The cheese ration, for instance, which has stood at a liberal eight ounces a week for SOlne time, is about to be cut in half, a big hardship for the wives of workingmen, since they will have to find something equally filling but not "on points" to put in the daily lunch- box. :-.-= -r .- \ " , L' 7 \ t :-'1 , \ ;'. --. ,,"- "ò '... . 'I """'1 ..\)I . . ". .' ....... H -. '(. II !j,t ; i- \ I \,,: J I.. - - r v.:.. [::; :"t: &K' ; ' " : : 11 . ,'/:' .-... ",: . / ' t I /- #, W IVES of all sorts of men come within the scope of the new Bevin regulations, which are to take ef- fect shortly. These, in addition to pro- viding a close check on possibly slippery female labor by insisting that employers notify the Labor Exchange when a woman worker leaves them, will direct all childless married women under for- ty-five to take part-tÎ1ne jobs within a reasonable distance from their homes. Housewives have been, oddly enough, officially designated one of the "unoc- cupied classes," but it looks as though the days of many of them are not going to be so very leisured in the future, divided as they will be between household chores and office or factory . Tapping this last great reservoir of female labor is the follow-up of a recent drive to make it harder for women not only to get out of war service but to choose what form their service should take. Girls who are affected hy the new call-up of nine- * Peggy"'Sage has"worked out a new DRESS PARADE MANICURE that is calculated to stand, up: through long hours of war work and last t register" loveliness on your short, precious "hours off." It I s the most complete, most wonderful mani- cure in ,town. It costs a dollar""but your war-busy hands deserve.. i-t- . ' , weekly,,. Phone-Pla'zo 3-9011 "'/- / ,I / : .." . , "I" 5 0 -',.'E A,S"'" '5"'7,t",h 5 T R E,ET